[Playstation 3] White Knight Chronicles Complete

White Knight Chronicles Complete

Disclaimer: White Knights chronicles 1 was released Feb 1, 2010, on Sept 12 2011 White Knight Chronicles 2 was released with improvements and WKC1 was included with improvements. This review covers that.

White Knight Chronicles is a game that stands alone in this generation. It is a game that seeks to bring an RPG feel mixed with an MMO feel. It was developed by the highly regarded Level 5 studio, the same people who brought us Ico and Shadow of Colossus. The game was released to a small hype outside of Japan. Its combat system, story, and complex online mode make it a unique gem in this generation.Story
The game begins with you making your own custom character. The character creation is very in dept. You can choose from many hair styles, facial features, even everything down to dimples are customize. After completing this you step into the WKC world. It starts with the princess celebrating her birthday. Years earlier her mother died and she has not spoken since then. While you create your own char the main star of WKC is Leonard. He is a humble guy who works at Rapachi wine. Your avatar is the new recruit and you two are sent out to fetch win for the princess ceremony.
Over the course of getting the wine you meet Yulie(Yurie in JPN), Leonards girl thatís a friend, who in typical fashion likes him. When bringing the wine back you sneak into the castle so Leonard can get a glimps of the princess who, you guessed it, he likes. Then all hell breaks loose and the princess is kidnap. During this time you are introduced to The Knight. The Giant Knight Wiesel awakens thank to the power of Lenard. You embark on your quest to save the princess lead by a mysterious man named Eldore. Many events take place to form the story leading into WKC2.
In WKC2 the story continues. Without giving away too much you learn more about the mysterious knight and what the main villain plans to do. While in WKC1 your avatar was mainly a silent person just in scenes and controlling them, in WKC2 your avatar take a key role in many quest. The down side is they still do not talk. Overall the story has many surprises and will keep you entertained.Final Story 9/10

Combat
Combat takes the main stage in WKC. You have 4 bars in combat, 3 of which you can customize with spells/attacks, while the 4th is for items and such. You will fight giant monsters that have multiple spots to attack and it is up to you to release the knight or fight in human form. Each monster and monster limb has a weakness. It could be a certain element, or a type of attack. You will know its weakness because when you use it the dmg you do will be in yellow instead of white. In WKC they type of attacks are blunt, slash, and thrust. Every weapon will have at least one type of this attack. Choosing your weapon is your own personal preference. During combat there is a circle that will fill letting you know when you can make your next attack. How fast this fills depends on your type of armor and weapon. The lighter the weapon and armor the faster it fills. So someone with light armor and a bow will attack more than a person with heavy armor and a two hand sword, but the sword does more damage per hit.

Each weapon has its own skill tree with special moves. It is recommended regardless of your weapon to dabble some in light magic to get some healing spell. In the weapon tree you unlock bonuses to dmg, health, magic, and different attacks. Some attacks require no AC. AC is something you gain during combat which allows you to pull off special moves, or a custom combo. This does not go away during non-combat time. Overall the combat is great. It is enough to keep you on your toes and deciding what to do next as a monster can pull a big move out of nowhere.Final Combat Score 10/10

Online
This is the grand jewel of WKC. The online is broken down into georama, and online MMO style play. First Georama
Georama is a town you create and fill with people, building, and materials. Through out the world of WKC you will meet people with yellow names. These people can be sent to your georama and will increase certain aspects. The aspects of georama are miner, farmer, warrior, lumberjack, mage, and chef. Each one determines what your vendor sells. So if I have a town with a bunch of miners my vendor would sell more highly valuable ore, where as if I had warriors they would sell more items that monsters usually drop. It is recommended to choose what you want and stick to it. Having to many various ones can lead to your georama not having anything of value.
Players can search through a list of different georamas to visit. Unfortunately there is no sort option for a specific one, like if I want to find someone who has a high miner town I just have to keep going into a town until I find one. With the right amount of money invested, buildings, and people your georama vendor can sell the best ore, cloth, monster drops etc in game. Upgrading your georama will cost you a good amount of gold so start saving.
Georama also serve as quest hub places. When players are at a georama they game talk to a guard, choose any quest available to them, and start it while waiting for other players to join. This leads to the second part of online the MMO style quest.

Throughout WKC you are given guild quest. These will vary upon your guild level. You start at 1 and can work your way up either by doing the guild quest online with other players, or offline with your party. Offline you are also given monster hunts to help increase your level. These are highly recommended to do as they often give great equipment, gold, and of course level your guild. The big downside to guild quest if you have to buy them, and not all are worth it. You can find guides online recommending good ones. Each quest will typically have a different rank depending on your level, and yes you have to buy each new rank. So guild quest 1, will also have guild quest 2, which will be same quest but with higher level monster and better rewards.
The higher your guild rank the better armor you will have available to you. All the best armor has a guild rank required for you to use it. The downside is more of the player then the design. 95% of the players you meet will just want to dmg. This causes frustration in even the simplest of quest because agro will bounce around and people will focus on themselves. If everyone dies it is quest over. Quest will vary from 4-6 people and only one knight may be used at a time. When you do that perfect group it is addicting. Quest rewards vary by type.

Online Score: 10/10

Graphics
I will just touch briefly on the graphics. They are good. Not Uncharted 2, but def not looking like something from the PS2 era. The mobs had smooth edges along with characters. I noticed no screen tearing, or slowing down of frame rate which is good considering you often fight giant monsters.Graphics Final Score: 10/10

Conclusion
If you love RPG, mmo, and playing with friends this is your game. It story is not the best, but will keep your attention. Your avatar development and customization will shape your future. Online play is fantastic and will offer you challenges. This is one game if you love RPG you should absolutely pick up.

Yuuichi Likes
-Player customization
-Lots of things to do
-High replayablity
-Online quest are fun and rewardingYuuichi Hates
-You need gold to do many things like level georama, make weapons, and you need a TON of it and it is not easy to get.
-Online is just a hub georama and not able to go out and explorer the world
-Leveling your guild rank, building georama is a massive time sink.Final Score 9/10

The concept is easily one of my favorite this generation but how they executed the story, to me was very, very poor. While its not bad to re-do the "Save the damsel in distress", this game makes everything too obvious, without giving you the pleasure to think. So in general you can figure out who will end up being together with, to who is really evil and whatnot in the first moment you meet key characters(Yeah, those sinister smirks can tells me everything).

Voice acting, especially from, Leonard, was so frustrating that I felt like I was watching, Birdemic: Shock and Terror(A, B-Movie). I was getting sick of hearing, Leonard talk about Cisca throughout the game, he was being inconsiderate and obnoxious towards others but had some common sense afterward unlike certain heroes I've seen.

Unlike the original version, the remastered version of the first game was definitely a challenge, making your knight not as powerful as before. It was refined all the way up to the battle system but a shame that they didn't improve the story. White Knight Chronicles 2 did some fair changes and Leonard wasn't an obsessed kid they made him out to be in the first one. The issues I had with the second game however was that you had to re-visit the majority of the maps from the first one which was a buzz kill to those who were expecting a number of new maps.

I agree that both the Online and customization are top notch. I enjoyed venturing with others in an attempt to obtain rare items to create certain weapons and armors. Building up your guild rank gave you more options and goals for your avatar to wear the best equipments in the game(Which you can even use during the story). Another negative I had(Now that I'm at it) was lack of additional content. I do know that, Japan had numerous updates but the west was neglected from this!.

Overall I enjoyed it. I never once regretted buying and playing it. While it could have been something majestic with the concept it was given, the game is fun to play with friends who are dedicated.

Hmm. Yeah I've heard the story is very poor. I was super hyped on this game when it was first announced (dat trailer. mmhmmm) but never picked it up. Its one of those games thats been on the back of my mind for ages. If I DID get it, I wouldn't play online. I'm a for the most part SP guy.

Do you think its worth it just for the story? and how long is said story? (for each title)

Hmm. Yeah I've heard the story is very poor. I was super hyped on this game when it was first announced (dat trailer. mmhmmm) but never picked it up. Its one of those games thats been on the back of my mind for ages. If I DID get it, I wouldn't play online. I'm a for the most part SP guy.

Do you think its worth it just for the story? and how long is said story? (for each title)

- Also, adding to the index

each story is around 30 hours not counting side quest, hunts, and a little grinding. Over all with out going online when I got the JPN version I clocked in over 100 hours. I think it is def worth it. Especially with it being around $20 now.

Sounds pretty good. I still have Tales of Graces F untouched, and then Ni No Kuni coming out soon. Once I finish with them this may be my next RPG to tackle. I might txt one of my friends and ask how he liked it, he got it ageesss ago on launch ><

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